Joshua Tree and Bishop

Some pics from the trip!!

Post trip moustache

and Jennys response to "post trip moustache"

The happys

More climbing in the happys

My favorite Problem in the Buttermilks called Rib Direct

The Rail problem

Bowling Pin (The reason I missed Sharma)

Ug, slab

Campsite

The Molly Dyno (V6)

Gleaming the Cube (V8)

Buttermilk Road

Joshua Tree

From Roof Romp

Roof Romp

BLM Campsite (desert)

Santanas

Summit of Ryan Mountain

Caveman

Mas Caveman

Good morning everyone! I just woke up and am sitting at a coffee shop in Westwood CA, just west of LA. The coffee place is pretty much right across from the movie theater where most Hollywood movies open; like with red carpet etc, so thats kinda cool. The location is the best thing about this coffee shop unfortunately. I am actually writing on receipt paper right now since, surprise surprise, I don't have anything else. Lets recap what's happened so far. We got to the airport at 2:15ish yesterday and had no problems with security, which was nice. Once through security, OH, the woman in front of me had a very manish suit and kinda looked like George Bush. Anyway, once through security we went to the airport Outback Steakhouse for celebratory vaca drinks.

The plane was full and Jon and I were sitting 1 row apart, me behind him. As I watch people peruse the aisle (my row is full and Jon's is not) I wonder who will sit down next to him. All of a sudden I see 2 asians wielding a baby come meandering down the aisle, and they look like they are ready to sit down. Yes. A giant smile, which had to cover the majority of my face came upon me. I was right. They sit down and as I gaze at Jon I notice that he does not look as excited as me. I wonder to myself if this turn of events will affect his decision to order an in flight cocktail.

The flight was smooth and the baby liked me; which they usually do for some reason. I think they can sense that my mind has the same # of processes going on as theirs. Anyway, I listened to music and relaxed, every once in a while scanning a climbing mag (both which I've probably read 25 times). Each time I look up I see the baby peering over the seat in front of me and cant help but think that this human is slobbering more than my dog does.

After getting bags Jon and I hop on the bus for Westwood and then walk to meet David (Jon's brother) at the hospital at which he works. PS walking around LA with a 5000 cubic inch pack on reminded me of Europe. We dropped our bags off at his place and visited with Dave for a bit followed by sushi at a place called Yamata. It looked like an old church that had been gutted and decorated for LA. Very cool place. It was also very cheap so Jon and I ordered enough to feed all of Rhode Island and went about our business. Afterward, we retired to David's for sleep.

It is now 3:43 on Sunday afternoon and I am on the way back from Jtree and writing on the back of a Carl's Jr comment card with a stolen pencil. So, we left la yesterday at 10am and really made pretty good time after we got out of the la traffic. After gassing up Jon forgot to put the gas cap back on, and since we are men (and idiots) stopping unnecessarily was not really an option. Therefore our drive was riddled with people pulling uip and telling us about it to which our response was something like "yea" or "we know, thank you". After we picked up our crashpads from Jtree outfitters (the shop was awesome and the pleople were awesome and wicked nice) we headed into the park. My camping concerns were well justified seeing as though the WHOLE PARK was full. We decided that we would deal with it when we needed and got set up to climb. After spending several minutes trying to get oriented and floundering around in the parking area a nice climber asked if we wanted input. Yes please and thank you. I think he was a jtree local and had a lot of good info. After playing on the problems he suggested we were all pretty underwhelmed. Very sharp rock and all vert or very slabby, not fun for me or us. 1 problem was pretty solid but I hadn't taped my fingers and it was shredding my right middle and ring fingers. Luckily JT is packed with rock formations for scrambling. The 3 of us spent a while just playing on those and moved to a boulder problem I was very excited about called Caveman. It was a juggy roof problem with cool huecos and toe hooks. Jon and I worked the moves until we had exhausted our physical and mental abilities. Afterward we drove a few miles to a trailhead that would allow us to summit Ryan Mountain at 5450 ft. It was a fast hike at a little over an hour. It was pretty touristy and included some strange groups of people. By the time we finished we were all starving. We found a fairly suspect place called Santanas that we settled on. 1, there was no on in there. 2, it was kind of like fast food mexican. 3, the woman working had black eyebrows tattooed on and a black line tattooed around her mouth...very nice. Seemed fine to us. Well the food was ok and plentiful so thats important. Also I think we set a trend because as soon as we ordered a ton of other people came in. Trend setters we are.

Since camping was kaboshed in Jtree we were given directions to some BLM (bureau of land management) land we could camp on, ie middle of the desert. We set up tents and all sat around and caught up. It was really nice and felt like old times. This morning Jon and I got up and drove into the town for breakfast. We ate at a really cool cafe that was just awesome. The food was so good! It was really the only restaurant in Joshua Tree that didn't scare the hell out of us. When we got back we tore down tents and drove back into the park. We had a place in mind to climb but since the book was written by a clown we couldn't find it (bad descriptions and black and white pictures of random rocks in the desert that all look the same). We stumbled around in the desert for a while and happened to come upon a problem that looked pretty fun. It turned out to be badass and was called Roof Romp; after scouring the guidebook. We worked it a little bit and after a few tries I sent it! Turned out to be v4 and I was very excited. We spent some more time scrambling and then returned to the car. Great time and successful trip. PS Carl's jr is awesome.

So this is a 1st. I am actually writing in a notebook! I bought 1 from Kmart (which I didn't think existed anymore) to take with me on these trips. Lets pick up where we left off. Once back from JT we had dinner at a really cool seafood placed called Malibu Seafood. So good! Right on the beach too! After, we jumped on the road for Bishop. It rained for the 1st hourish then finally cleared up. The drive was long but not too bad. We rolled into town at about 2am and turned into what we thought was our camping area. It turned out to be a very creepy something else. Maybe from the horror movie House of Wax? Upon further investigation we found our site next door. Seemed pretty standard. RVs and some tents. We found a fairly dark spot and pulled in to set up tents. A minute or so into this process we hear a very loud MOOOOO. Apparently this campground was right next to a large field of cows wielding megaphones...and apparently we had bothered them. They would not be quiet. Loudly and frequently they would moo. Jon and I were almost in tears we were laughing so hard by the end of it. I fell asleep fast , despite the ridiculously loud future ground beef.

I woke up early, ready to see Bishop and get climbing. Well technically the reason I woke up was because I thought my tent was going to be hit by a car. The only thing separating our tents from these cows was a road that people like to practice for nascar on. At about 7:45am we headed into town. PS after I got out of my tent I was able to see where exactly we were. Due to the night time drive in we didn't see that we were in a valley surrounded by huge snow capped mountains. We had breakfast at a local place called Jack's to wait for the shop to open so we could pick up our crashpads.

Once obtained we headed up to the buttermilks. It was amazing. Literally took my breath away and turned me into a giddy child. The buttermilks are known for huge boulders (the biggest up by 60 ft high) and beautiful scenery. Both were accurate. The first boulders that we saw were Grandma and Grandpa Peabody. They were huge. Also the hardest problem in the world is on Grandpa, just climbed March 30 of this year called Lucid Dreaming. It was ridiculous. It looked so hard. Awe inspiring. We spent the next 4 or 5 hours climbing there with different levels of success. The climbing was hard but really great. Mid-way through the day we met 2 people named Donnie and Jill who were climbing on the same boulder we were. We left for 20 min or so to try a problem called bowling pin (which beat my ass) and when we came back Jill asked me if I had seen Sharma? My mind was blown and I was very sad. Apparently he was climbing right near us! So cool! The best climber in the world and the guy my pup is named after was climbing right next to us! What are the odds?

After the buttermilks we went to another area called the Sads. We hiked in and didn't really find much at first. It is a volcanic rock bouldering area in a gorge so quite hard to navigate. Finally we heard a couple other people and made our way toward the sound in hopes they could send us in the direction of rad problems. It was Donnie and Jill again. Small world. We climbed there with them for a while and did a sick dyno called the Molly Dyno. Ps, Dyno means all points off (jumping). So sweet. When we were getting ready to head out Donnie mentioned something about some hot springs and offered his placed to us to crash after. Since I can't say no to hot springs we decided to go, even though they were 20 miles or so North near Mammoth Lakes. We got there via miserable dirt "road" with the concern brewing that we were going to get robbed/stabbed/raped. Once there it was worth it. Beautiful night and the water was really hot. Donnie and Jill were fun and good people. Also very generous of them to share kind of a local secret with the donkeys from the midwest. We looked at stars, talked for an hour or so and headed back to the cars. It was another 10 minutes or so to Mammoth. We finished the night with some drinks and crashed pretty hard due to a long day climbing and a long night driving prior. Now, today, we got up early and had breakfast at an awesome local place in Mammoth called The Stove. Also, Mammoth is a big ski town and at about 7000 ft elevation, so awesome. The drive back was pretty and we got right to climbing once back to Bishop. Back to the buttermilks. Another great day of it. Sent some hard stuff which I was very excited about! We also went to an area called the happys. It was more my style of climbing, (big holds, overhung, big moves) so that was really great. My favorite climbing out there, aside from the buttermilks scenery. We ate at a weird thai place for dinner and retired to our beautiful campsite. Now here I am sitting around a campfire, looking at stars and writing. Can't complain. Well except a scorpion just crawled across my leg and scared the shit out of me. Not my favorite. Time to go into my tent. Goodnight.

Well there it is. Now I'm back home with the lady and the monsters. It was a good trip but I'm glad to be home. PS we move 1 month from today.

Happy Birthday?

Pics from the trip...

Paul's 1st Lead

Pat starting Amarillo

Drew on "Bulldozer"

Me on "Significant Other"

The best pizza in the world

Well good morning everyone. I am currently sitting in the usual spot, not drinking coffee however watching rock climbing. I am not as excited about this as you all may think. I should be leaving right now to go rock climbing in Cincinnati, however I am (and have been since sunday) sick. I figured I would update people on the climbing trip last weekend since I will be sitting here for the next 24-? hours.

So at 5:45am last saturday my alarm went off and immediately told Jenny that I had dreams about the red. She shook her head in confusion/disgust and we got up. I was excited not only because I was going to the red but because Jenny was going for the first time. Also it would be Paul and Drew's first outside climbing trip which is just awesome. We got on the road at 6:45ish and made it to the red at about 10. For this trip Pat (usual climbing partner) and I decided we wanted to go somewhere new. I had never been anywhere in the Southern Region of the gorge and Pat had only been to 1 area once. So this was our plan. The directions to get to the crag we chose include things like this, "After 0.3 miles the road turns to gravel and heads down a steep hill," and "Continue on the main road until the road narrows and becomes more of a trail." Promising right? It also says..."cars are known to not get back out of the gorge," and "if you are concerned about your car making it back out climb somewhere else." We had faith in the Nitro so we pushed forth. They weren't kidding. The hills were so steep it felt like our car was going to flip forward, not really but they were quite steep and there were HUGE trenches in the path because of people getting stuck going out and just digging their car into the road. We finally arrive at the parking area and make the short hike into the walls. The first was called the Shire which had 3 nice warm up climbs which all were good candidates for Paul and Drew's first lead.

We climbed our first route and then headed to the a nearby wall which had a specific route that I have been wanting to climb called Amarillo Sunset. It had been featured in the Photo Edition of Rock and Ice magazine and looked awesome, but hard. So we got there and stopped dead in our tracks, it was beautiful and intimidating. It was in this huge amphitheater oven a ravine. AWESOME Since it was my desired project I went first. The moves were all doable but hard to string together. I made it through the first 3 bolts before I fell, which I was excited about. The guidebook describes Amarillo as this..."Destined to be a classic. Start from a ledge just right of a large ravine. Move up through 65 feet of big pumping throws to big holds with excellent exposure. Save some gas to clip the anchors." Even the description was intimidating! I made it through with several falls and was very content. Hopefully I will send it the next time I go. As the guidebook said, Amarillo starts on a little ledge 20 feet or so off the ground. Once on the actual ground it thins out to a little ravine. Therefore when you are 30 feet up in the climb you are actually 60 or so feet off the ground. You feel quite exposed. Also I will take this time to thank Jenny again for going and for being such a good sport. You were awesome and hopefully it wasn't too painful for you. The red just holds such as special place in my heart that I wanted to share it with you. Anyway after Amarillo we climbed a few other cool routes and headed back to Miguel's for pizza. 3 hours after that we were home sweet home and 3 hours after that I started to feel sick, and now 70 hours after that I am sitting here, still feeling sick. Hope everyone has a great day!

Jenny, Me, Pat, Drew and Paul at the Sore Heel Parking Area

Amarillo Sunset (Next 3)

New Mexico Spring Break Trip

Hey Everyone! I am now enjoying a relaxing evening at home with beautiful miss Jennifer and the animals. Since I obviously didn't have my computer while exploring NM I wrote things down on the back of a form the technically I should have kept clean in case we (the OPC) needed it, but who am I kidding it's not like I am employee of the year. Anyway here is what I wrote.

Hello All!

I am sitting in a tent in southern NM right now

getting ready for bed. This is the 1st blank paper I've had available, obviously I will later transfer it to the computer machine. I'll catch you all up.

The 1st day of driving (March 6) landed us in Oklahoma City. The drive went fast and all was well. The group was uncharacteristically quiet and hard to read. The next day we finished the drive with a stop in Roswell...which sounded cool but sucked. I was very excited but it turned out to be very boring and kinda trashy. After our 30 minute (also 30 minutes too long) stop we continued on and got Brantley Lake State Pa

rk right at sunset. It was beautiful and I was able to fire off a few pictures before setting up camp. See Below.

Afterward we got word that a serious weather advisory was coming for us; 50mph wind and golf sized hale. We then tore down tents and took refuge in the van or under the picnic shelter (Drew and I wanted to watch the lightening.) Winds were strong and a bit of rain came but the storm missed us to the South. That night was loud (The wind did blow 30-40mph) and I had my tent to myself. I slept ok but not as well as I would have liked.

The next day we got up and drove to the Carlsbad Caverns. They are amazing and too big to describe. They are located in the Guadaloupe Mountains. We did a guided cave tour (lit by only candle lanterns) as well as explored by ourselves. It was a cool tour but our guide was annoying and in less than good condition. She described a dangerous part of the cave that had been coined "the death hill" that had me very interested. When we approached the death hill i immediately realized that me stepping up into my car is as physically demanding and dangerous as "the death hill" Needless to say the tour wasn't strenuous although the caves were awesome. We did do a "total blackout," which means since there is no natural light in the caves, when our candles were blown out we were in a literal blackout. They described it as seeing the cave in it's natural state, which I thought was really cool. I was holding my hand directly in front of my face and could not see it at all. It was really creepy and awesome! Your mind really plays tricks on you when you are in total darkness. That night we got word of a worse wind storm and made the last minute decision to stay in a little cabin near our campsite to stay out of the weather. They were small but nice and had a hottub...sold. Nothing like roughing it in a warm cabin with a hottub outside. I showered quickly after the Hottub and dried off with paper towels from the bathroom (no towel) then went to bed.

The next day we drove to White Sands National Monument...about 3 hrs away. We drove through some mountains on the way which I naturally thought were breathtaking. Sierra Blanco was on our right and was just demanding my attention. When we got to White Sands we were all amazed. Itw as way cooler than we could have imagined. It really is just flawless white sand dunes in the middle of the NM desert, surrounded by mountains. We were able to sled down the dunes, which got boring fast so we invented our own game. We would just jump off the side of the sand dunes. Yep it is just as it sounds. See pictures...

Sierra Blanco

When we grew weary of beating our bodies mercilessly we headed to the City of Rocks. I instantly fell in love with it. Just endless possibilities for lines harder and bigger than the one you just tried and fell in love with. Well as we arrived, yep, you guessed it. Weather advisory. Wind. The 1st hour was spent chasing tents and trying to stake them down with giants rocks (still unsuccessful at times). The rain started soon there after. We hurried through dinner (cold and wet...See Picture) and retired to our tents...8pm. Oh also got a good sunset pic.

8:02, realized that my ipod was in the van...F. Nice night filled with howling winds unable to be drowned out with Pearl Jam. Terrible night of sleep. 6am, wake up to watch sunrise Beautiful but frigid with more wind...0 degrees with wind chill? Here's the sunrise

We gave bouldering a go, unsuccessfully. Too cold and ripped the tow on a warm up climb...not pleased. After breakfast god felt bad for us and let us have some sun. The bouldering was amazing once the weather started cooperating. Pockety face climbs with cool huecos, and tons of it. Playland? Yes. We found a huge beautiful boulder in a field by itself in front of Cook's Peak : ) and it had my attention. With little intention of really climbing it I started up a perceived route. Before I knew it I was trying to solve the crux sequence (also happened to be the last few moves). The climb felt great and with the resumed 1st ascent I named it Megatron Falls.25-30ft V3. When my heart slowed back down to a human rate I was in the middle of lunch...approximately 24 minutes later. After dinner I looked at the stars and now here I am. More to come. Jenny, Sharma and Boss, I miss you guys. Love you so much and wish you were in my tent with me...well in theory...it would be a tight squeeze and with the animals fighting I feel we would get very little sleep. Goodnight.

Megatron Falls

March 11

I am back in my tent getting ready to hopefully get some good sleep because last night didn't cut it, again. It dropped to about 20 last night before warming up to be a beautiful morning this morning. After breakfast we bid farewell to the City of Rocks. Our drive to Gila National Forest was short but the final 20 miles were beautiful. Winding roads through the mountains really do it for me...until we found our campsite and it looked like we walked onto the set of the new Texas Chainsaw Massacre film. It was this creepy little farm that's welcome sign looked like it was made by the Cady brothers, aka bad, terrible, whatever descriptive words you want to use. We finally found the site and Hot Springs area and they were surrounded by these weird bone like things hanging and other creepy and strange decorations. Once settled in it didn't seem as creepy anymore, which was nice. I actually ended up really liking it. After we had lunch we split up into a hot springs group and a hiking group. Maxam and myself took the group out for a quick 5 mile out and back. Beautiful weather, I hiked in Chacos. The mountains here are beautiful. When we got back we made Guadaloupe Chili Pie. OH MY We always make it on these trips and this is why. First is a layer of tortillas, then a layer of beef, then a layer of homini, then a layer of green peppers, then a layer of onion, then a layer of beef, then a layer of cheese, then more cheese, then a layer of cornbread. Then it is cooked in a dutch oven (Cast iron pot that you put charcoal on the top and bottom of to cook all the way through.) So good. Afterward I got into the hot springs which were amazing. Really hot and right next to the river. Afterward we hung out by the fire, swapped stories and gawked at the stars. Now here I am. I set up m tent on the sand 5ft from the river. It isn't a bad place to say goodnight. Love you all at home.

The final day was spent relaxing in the hot springs as well as hiking to see the native american's cliffside dwellings. Very cool. We woke up bright and early the next day to drive back home. 32hr drive. Long but worth it. Here are some more random pictures!

Carlsbad Caverns

Megatron Falls...again

Cliffside Dwellings

Gila National Forest

Drew, Maxam, Vossler and I in the Hot Springs

Campsite in Gila

City Of Rocks (Megatron Falls in the background)

Drew looking like he should be in a Black Diamond ad

Sand Couch

Drew and I in front of Sierra Blanco

Sand Couch

Hiking in Gila

Drew and I at City of Rocks after a great climbing day

Ohio and Beyond

Good morning everyone!

I am sitting in my chair having coffee and watching climbing since I have the day off. It's been a while so I figured I would update everyone on current happenings and future happenings. This past week I took a group of fraternity pledges down to the red river gorge for a search and rescue trip. My job was to hike one of their actives out into the gorge and hide him. We hiked out at about 4pm into the balmy wilderness (27 degrees). I got him out there in a timely fashion and started hiking back out of the gorge to "run into" the group searching for him. At this point I had hiked 3.5 or 4 miles. I ran into the group with no problems and told them I had not heard anyone was missing and followed them to the PLS (point last seen). They found him with minimal issues and started building their gurney to carry him out. The biggest problem is the treacherous hike out of the gorge. The first 1/2 mile is steep hiking with fairly steep cliff lines lining the trail. This would not be that big of a deal if there wasn't snow and ice everywhere. Being the medically trained person out with the group it was my job to make sure people were safe and treat people if something were to happen so this ascent was a mentally draining thing for me. It was getting colder and starting to drizzle which was less that exciting for me and I'm sure the rest of the group. I look at my clock, 9pm. Good god. We aren't even out of the gorge portion of the hike yet (the first 1/2 mile). They still have another 1 1/2 once out of the gorge. Their gurney breaks probably 5 times and they finally just carry the "patient" in a tarp. Not exactly by the book but for the circumstances it was fine. We got back to camp at 10:30 and then had dinner and debriefed their experience with them.

This week I am busy trying to finish up things for our spring break trip. We have planned an awesome Moab UT trip. Unfortunately Moab is under a foot of snow and temps are mid 30 and maybe 40s...during the day. This will not bode well for our participants so now were are stuck planning a new trip in a matter of 3 or 4 days. What we have come up with is this...

Sunday...arriving in Carslbad New Mexico

Monday...Going caving in the Carlsbad Caverns

Tuesday...Drive to White Sands National Monument and camp outside Las Cruces

Wednesday...Boulder at the City of Rocks and camp

Thursday...Camp in the Gila National Forest near the Gila Hot Springs

Friday...Hiking and Hot Springsing and checking out Native American Cliffside dwellings

We think it's ok for last minute plans.

When I get home my next trip is to Joshua Tree and Bishop California in April. The 9th through the 15th. Both Jtree and Bishop are world class bouldering areas and should be amazing. Bishop is known for high ball bouldering surrounded by the snow capped Sierra Range. Jtree is desert landscape with some small peaks and tons of boulders and nasty trad lines. Hopefully some hiking in jtree to summit Monument Mountain or Ryan Mountain.

After that (May 8th through 15th) I will be in Vail with family and Jenny and Jaime. This should be an awesome and relaxing trip. Hopefully with some summits and possibly some sport climbing. Can't wait. Going to be an exciting few months. Hope to hear from colleges soon.

PS can't wait to move to CO with Jenny. So excited. We are officially on the waiting list for our apartment. Fingers crossed everyone!

Check out some pics...

Bishop Bouldering

White Sands National Monument

City Of Rocks NM

Joshua Tree CA

Carlsbad Caverns NM

Disclaimer: These are not my pictures (I don't want to be sued)